New England Biz Law Update

The commercial custodian of non-discretionary individual retirement accounts did not owe a fiduciary duty to a named beneficiary of those accounts, but the beneficiary could maintain a suit under the consumer protection statute, G.L.c. 93A, by credibly alleging that the ...

Not surprisingly, attorneys who represent employers and those who represent employees disagree on both the process and potential end result of Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker’s move to use a supplemental spending bill to respond to a decision by the Supreme ...

A neurologist at Boston Medical Center who claimed she was subjected to a hostile work environment did not provide sufficient evidence of a pattern of gender bias to support her claim, a Superior Court judge in Massachusetts has found. Plaintiff ...

A government rule that threatens forfeiture of 4 percent of a company’s annual worldwide revenues would seem a sure bet to grab every business leader’s attention. But a new survey finds that many companies in the U.S. and abroad have ...

With today’s increased focus on diversity and inclusiveness in the workplace, some employment attorneys are reporting that employees are raising more concerns about so-called “reverse discrimination.” “People are generally more aware now that they may have legal rights in employment, ...

Plaintiffs who brought a class action accusing their former employer of breaching its fiduciary duties by mismanaging its employee retirement plan were not entitled to a jury trial, a U.S. District Court judge in Massachusetts has found. The plaintiffs sought ...

The CVS Pharmacy corporation was entitled to a preliminary injunction blocking the executive who ran its Caremark retail network from working for Amazon’s new online pharmacy, a U.S. District Court judge in Rhode Island has decided. Defendant John Lavin, who ...

Reversing its own precedent on the issue, a three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has held that the federal False Claims Act’s first-to-file rule is nonjurisdictional, thereby limiting a court’s analysis of competing first-to-file claims to ...

A manufacturer that alleged another company breached the implied warranty of merchantability by selling it defectively designed parts was not required to prove the defect was foreseeable by reasonable testing in order to sustain its claim, the 1st U.S. Circuit ...

A contract between two companies to develop renewable energy projects was not orally modified by a “mutual understanding” allegedly reached during mid-project conversations between the parties, a U.S. District Court judge in Rhode Island has ruled. Under a master agreement ...